<VV>GM

[Tony Underwood]

At 04:15 PM 11/16/2006, Padgett wrote:

>>How many times do we have to call GM a "punk b*tch" and yell "wake
>>up" before anyone will listen?
>
>GM people are not dumb


They *are* having to work with the dumb decisions made 
earlier...   those union concessions are nothing if not dumb.


>they just have choices that are bad and worse. Their "sunk cost" 
>(cost before they build car 1) is so horrific that they can only 
>make money on cars with a lot of profit, not "loss leaders" or economy cars.


And THAT approach is gonna kill them off unless they can change 
something, *Anything* about their overhead.

>You think they did not sweat every penny out of the HHR and still 
>come in $100 over the PT ?


They should NOT have built the thing in the first place.   It's just 
a copy.   And a copy of an original that's experiencing waning sales 
at that.    It's almost like it was an impulse move, like seeing one 
guy on the other side of the pond getting lots of bluegill hits with 
live bait so you go scurrying over to his side with bass lures 
designed by a marketing agency after he's fished it out...


>Chrysler went broke


Waitaminit.  Chrysler never "went broke".   Hard times, had to borrow 
money etc but they never went bust.


>in 1979 and now has M-B as a parent.


"Parent"?   Chrysler has Daimler as a kidnapper.   It was no merger, 
it was a takeover and a back-door sneak attack takeover, done with 
borrowed money at that, after which Daimler (read:  Jurgen Schrempp) 
damn near ruined Chrysler after looting their R&D fund so as to pay 
off all the dividends that the Daimler stockholders were promised 
they'd get from this "merger".    Then, after a massive mishandling 
of Chrysler at every turn, Schrempp finally stuck his watchdog Dieter 
Zetsche and his moustache in place as CEO of Chrysler at the last 
minute, 11th hour, almost as a last resort, and told him to "fix" 
Chrysler or else.

...which he did.

Schrempp did his own self in as a result, with the irritated and 
disappointed board booting his ass out and placing The Moustache in 
DC's CEO chair, and then putting Tom Lasorda into Chrysler's top 
slot.    Since then, things seem to have stabilized considerably for 
everybody involved.

There are those who believe that Chrysler would have been much better 
off to have been left the Hell alone in the first place.



>Toyota and Honda don't have 60 years of benefits adding to 
>overhead.. You say GM isn't competing.

I didn't say they weren't trying...


>The problem is that GM *can't* compete unless something drastic happens.

They dug their own hole.    SOmebody is gonna have to figure a way 
out of the concessions bog they got themselves into.   And the unions 
are gonna HAVE to lighten up, OR ELSE.

The really sad part is that lots of these unions would sit back and 
let GM gag, choke, and die before they'd agree to giving up a DIME 
off their freebies and perks.   Kinda makes me wonder what they 
intend to do for a living when this happens... or do they expect the 
government to come save them with handouts...?   After all, they've 
gotten used to it.   Or, at least the union bosses have.


You're right, in that something drastic is gonna have to happen... or else.


tony..